


The Knight of Gilded Gingerbread and the Butterfly

by sprocket



Category: Perilous Gard - Elizabeth Marie Pope
Genre: Comedy, F/M, Family, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-11
Updated: 2014-05-11
Packaged: 2018-01-24 05:11:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1592789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sprocket/pseuds/sprocket
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An old ivory chess set, an engagement ring the color of fire, a neglected manor. Christopher was a dear, Alicia thought, but she was glad he was marrying Kate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Knight of Gilded Gingerbread and the Butterfly

**Author's Note:**

  * For [betony](https://archiveofourown.org/users/betony/gifts).



“Alicia,” Sir Thomas called from his study. “Come here, there’s someone your mother and I want you to meet.”

A frown wrinkled Alicia Sutton’s mouth and framed her golden eyes as she swept into the study. “Father, who – oh!” A handsome, if tired-looking, young man shared Sir Thomas’ study. His clothes were plain and countrified, but well-made, the garb of a young lord not often in court. 

“This is Christopher Heron, Sir Geoffrey Heron’s brother,” Sir Thomas said. “Christopher, this is my other daughter – “ 

Alicia cried out. “Sir Geoffrey? You must have any news of my sister!” She rushed to Christopher’s side. “Please – have you spoken with her?” 

Christopher’s mouth twitched. “Yes, I have,” he replied. “When I left, she was well.” 

“But I have forgotten all my manners!” Alicia cried again, as relief swelled within her. “Alicia Sutton, sir,” she said, making her courtesy.

“Alicia,” Christopher said, bowing over her hand, “I am pleased to make your acquaintance, and hope this is the beginning of many sunny days in your presence.” 

“If you intend to be in town long, sir, you might get your wish,” Sir Thomas broke in. “Christopher is here to deliver his widowed brother’s child to his sister,” he explained to Alicia, “and he is-“ her father glanced at Christopher, who shook his head slightly, inexplicably- “he is staying in town some weeks to pursue other business,” he finished. 

“But while you are in town you _must_ do more than just drudgery,” Alicia insisted. “Even with Queen Mary so ill, there are still some entertainments.” 

“Perhaps,” he replied.

* * *

Alicia was practicing a new pavan on the family virginal when she heard a door opening, then Lady Sutton greeting Christopher Heron. She peeped over the part-book, intending to add her own _good afternoon_ , but was distracted by the box in his arms and a bag he left near the door. “And what have you there, Christopher?” she called from the virginal, curious. “Come bring it here.”

“Come and see, if you’re so inquisitive,” he said, setting the box on a table. 

The box proved to contain battered cards and several games, and in a separate bag a wooden chess set, of an older style, a winking stone in the ivory bishop’s cross gleaming dully in the clear afternoon light. “Geoffrey would play the occasional game with me, when I was a boy,” Christopher explained, “And Kate would ask me to play in the – when we didn’t have a chess set. Then she made me tell her about the set my brother gave me.”

“I don’t see the fun in an old chess set,” Alicia said, tossing back her hair, “but Kate and Father used to have the most horrible games. Why, he made her play _with a blindfold_ to see if she could.” She brightened, struck with a sudden thought. “Maybe a _new_ set, like the Princess Elizabeth’s-“ 

“That monstrosity made of mother and pearl and emeralds? That’s a gift she’ll be sure to appreciate while she’s asking me if I meant to move my king into check, I’m sure.” A note of pride and delight in Kate’s odd serious ways sounded in his voice. 

“Christopher, Alicia,” Lady Sutton broke in. “I’m certain Kate will be happy with such a classic set, especially if it’s restored. Such a practical girl – I could set her at accounts with no worries about the sums coming right. You should talk to Sir Thomas, though,” she said to Christopher. "I've never understood that girl's mind the way he does."

A servant came up, calling for Lady Sutton, leaving Christopher with Alicia.

"Please," she said, "tell me more about Kate and the Elvenwood. How is she filling her time? Who is serving her in the household?" She hesitated. "Is... is she happy?"

Instead of answering her questions, Christopher studied her. "Is her happiness so important to you?" he asked.

She nodded, looking away from him, aware again of the guilt weighing on her soul. “It’s not _fair_ ,” she burst out, “that I should be at the Queen’s court while Kate is chained up in a dungeon-“ 

“ – an arresting declamations, but I bring you news, girl, that the grounds and manor of Elvenwood Hall are a very nice dungeon, with windows and an Italian gallery, not to mention excellent views from the battlements and the village not a mile down the road -“

“ – when _I_ wrote that letter,” Alicia finished. “And with no news, nothing, to save her from whatever privations she is enduring.” 

“Good God, girl, I see plain speaking runs in the family, if not brains,” Christopher said, exasperated. “I hope you keep a more civil tongue in your head when you see the Queen.” 

Alicia tossed her shining hair. “If I were allowed a word in her presence, I would be a true sister and just _tell_ her Majesty- ” She felt her lower lip start to tremble, her eyes to fill with tears. “-I’m sure it would come out right. Doesn’t Our Lord say that ‘righteousness and peace have kissed each other’?”

“I believe He has a few words on wrath and righteousness the Queen is more familiar with,” Christopher retorted. “Be a good girl and wait, and you’ll be the truest sister anyone could wish for.” 

She sniffed and nodded. “Oh Christopher,” she said, glancing sideways and up at the handsome young man, “I’m so glad you’re here.”

"With such a welcome, how could I stay away?" he asked. "Here, there's something else I want to show you, in the bag." He fetched the bag, resettled it near the window. "I'm taking it to a goldsmith my brother knows, and perhaps a jeweler, to find out its worth, but there's a loose stone - " 

From the plain bag, almost a burlap sack, Christopher lifted something that gleamed and flashed.

A gold and ruby armband – a matching round device, a collar or somesuch in an antiquated design – “Why, those are fine enough for a king!” Alicia cried. “What great huge rubies!” 

Christopher’s glance was… it was a Kate glance, Alicia decided. Complicated. Almost shyly, he said, “it’s not a king’s ransom these will pay. There’s a manor in Norfolk… putting it to rights will take time and effort. And money.” 

“A manor?” Alicia asked, puzzled. All these riches buried in an old estate? 

“And the lands, and the ditching, and the dairy…” Christopher said mock-seriously, looking down at her, “the dairy, that’s very important.” 

“Now I know you’re teasing me,” Alicia replied. “I see you smiling. Come now, Christopher, be a true friend and tell me.” 

“I speak the truth, and I’m told to lie,” he said, resettling the glittering jewelry in its bag, “and when I lie I am tripped up by the truth. Well, if there’s anything else, it’s your father who will hear of it next.” 

Her father? She frowned. What would a young man have to talk to her father, next to - Alicia gasped. “It’s Kate!” she cried. “Have you gone and fallen in love with my sister?” This put Christopher in an _entirely_ new light. 

He looked startled. "Love? Well, I guess...."

"Guess!" Alicia said, abandoning all thoughts of the manor. "Why, what is it called then, when a faint and pale young man comes to call on a woman's father? When her name brings a smile to his face, and he finds oddments and ornaments to please her?"

"It feels like the only possible course. She is..." he groped for words uncertainly, "...when I think of the future, it's a future with Kate. Imaging a life without her to bring me to my senses is as strange as imaging a life without breath, or.... or some necessary thing."

“Oh Christopher!” Alicia cried, “You’ll be a true suitor to my sister, won’t you? That even sounds like something she might say. Something silly and unromantic and… and not out of the ballads at all.”

Christopher said gaily, "I’d almost like to see one of your knights from a ballad try. Until he rides up in ‘shining armor and noble visage’, isn't that how the songs go? There’s a stone I need set for an engagement ring. What setting do you think she might like?”

* * *

Alicia puzzled over her sister’s betrothal gifts for days. Christopher looked blankly at the gowns and fabric bolts in the new fashions. He ran his hands over old herbals, books of Latin,and treatises on farming while she picked over poetry or the romances of Arthur’s knights. The suggestion of a snow-white mare (and a matching gelding for him) he outright refused. She flitted from one idea to another one afternoon, at a little family fete Lady Sutton had arranged that Christopher might meet the rest of Sutton cousins and uncles and aunts, but he seemed distracted, his attention wandering to her uncle John's conversation on the state of the Norfolk harvest. 

Honestly, there was dancing. Who cared about a crumbly old manor when a new dance was about to start? 

“For you, dear sister-to-be, I would pile velvets and embroidered bodices to the rooftops,” he said, when she asked. “Now imagine if I brought Kate half of your new court dresses. She's a dear, but I suspect she'd ask how she was to run a household with three gowns of velvet, two crewel-worked skirts, and not a fork nor spit in the kitchen.” 

Alicia wrinkled her nose. He might be right about the dresses. But his gifts so far were an odd set for a courtship: an old ivory chess set, an engagement ring the color of fire, and a neglected manor. “You’re a dear, Christopher,” Alicia said, “but I’m glad you’re marrying Kate.”

Weeks later, watching how he looked at Kate, and the way she looked back at Christopher, Alicia whispered to Sir Geoffrey, “I feel like I _have_ wandered into a ballad.” Louder, she called, “come to the fire, my dears,” admiring the stone glittering on her sister’s finger, “there’s hot wine enough for all.”

**Author's Note:**

> A huge thank you to raspberryhunter for incredibly helpful and rapid beta rounds. Any bumps that remain are despite her advice.


End file.
